Cold Man in the Kremlin

i was born in 1950, and so I have lived through many wars. As a child of the 1960s, the Vietnam war made a big impression on me. I was too young to understand the Cold War until college, when political science classes opened me to world politics. When Vladimir Putin was first named president of Russia, I joked that the former KGB officer wanted to become the next tsar. How prescient I was. Putin’s small stature, as with many short leaders, has helped him dream of gigantic goals–in his case the reunion of the countries under former Soviet control. i may be underestimating his real motivation. Why not all of Europe? so will there be a world war 3? With Iran as Russia’s protege? So what is Obama’s will? Does Congress regret smashing our military capabilities? As Russia uses lots of boots on the ground and we use drones, the advantage may be with overwhelming soldiers, the grandchildren of Russia’s old army. Do they have the will to die not for their country, but instead for Tsar Putin the First and his corrupt government? I am not ready for another war, but Putin is.